Conventional wireless Emergency 911 services (E911) are focused on the initial link between an emergency caller and an emergency dispatcher. While this is certainly a valuable service, it provides only the most rudimentary capabilities related to complex emergency scenarios and does not make optimal use of modern smartphone capabilities nor more sophisticated information collection, correlation and retrieval.
In a typical wireless E911 call session a voice call is established from a system user to an emergency dispatcher that then notifies the appropriate response agency (e.g. police, fire, etc.). This process focuses on collecting a verbal description of the emergency event, logging the call and notifying the response agency. Little additional information is gathered even though modern smart phones are capable of collecting additional potentially valuable information. The limited collection of emergency event information leads to minimal information being passed to responding agencies and does not facilitate the ability to assist the responding agency. Due to the limitations of conventional emergency response systems, the most appropriate personnel may not be dispatched to a given emergency situation.